It started around 3:30 a.m. on the East Coast, and reports of AT&T outages poured in. Customers filed complaints through Reddit and X, and he logged issues on Downdetector, a site that detects when services are down.
The effects appear to be far-reaching. AT&T users from New York to Atlanta to Dallas claimed no signal and their phones remained in SOS mode.Multiple police stations including San Franciscoreported that some users were unable to contact 911 due to the outage. By 9 a.m. ET, Downdetector showed more than 72,000 AT&T outages across the United States. The site baseline for AT&T service issues is 42.
“Some customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” AT&T spokesman Jim Greer said in a statement. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We recommend using Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”
But it's not just AT&T customers. On Thursday morning, all carriers on Downdetector showed a spike, including giants Verizon and T-Mobile. However, both companies confirmed that there were no problems with their networks. Complaints are more of collateral damage, where you're trying to reach AT&T's contact information and can't get through.
“There were no outages,” a T-Mobile spokesperson told WIRED in an email. “Our network is operating normally. We believe Downdetector reflects challenges our customers were having trying to connect to users on other networks.”
Similarly, a Verizon spokesperson said in an email that “Verizon's network is operating normally. A customer has encountered a problem.”
The news isn't all bad. AT&T has confirmed that FirstNet, the first responder network built by AT&T, is working properly. And while Wi-Fi calling is an imperfect alternative and may not be available at all in some locations, it's a good workaround for now. (To turn on Wi-Fi calling, click on your smartphone. settingafter that network and internetAfter switching the Wi-Fi calling Toggle on. The exact wording may vary depending on your phone model and operating system. )
Cellular network outages occur with some frequency. It can be caused by anything from extreme weather conditions to technical problems behind disconnecting the wires. T-Mobile experienced a major service interruption of this magnitude a year ago, but ultimately to cause “Third Party Fiber Interruption Issue”. However, the issue appeared to be more self-contained than a ripple effect that seemed to have caused AT&T's problems.
It's hard to say when AT&T's outages will be resolved without knowing the underlying problem. But as of 9:30 a.m. ET, there were no signs of improvement.
This is a developing story. We will continue to update you with new information as it becomes available.
